Child Maltreatment Surveillance

In October 2001, California was one of five state selected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to receive three year cooperative agreements to test methodologies for developing practical surveillance for fatal and non-fatal child maltreatment (CM). The EPIC Branch was awarded two grants, one for CM mortality surveillance and one for CM morbidity surveillance. The other states are Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri and Rhode Island. For more information on these projects, contact us at epic@cdph.ca.gov.

The overall project goal, guided by the Healthy People 2010 Health Status Objective 15-33b, is to reduce fatal CM by improving the capacity of California and the nation to conduct surveillance on this significant public health problem. EPIC has two specific sub-goals. The first is to compare alternative approaches to the surveillance of fatal CM to test methods that may be employed in California and nationwide for the surveillance of CM and violence at all ages. The second is to expand and refine EPIC's Fatal Child Abuse and Neglect Surveillance (FCANS) Program for California based upon these findings. The major objectives include:

The overall project goal, guided by the Healthy People 2010 Health Status Objective 15-33a, is to reduce non-fatal CM by improving the capacity of California and the nation to conduct surveillance on this significant public health problem. EPIC has two specific sub-goals. The first is to compare alternative approaches to the surveillance of non-fatal CM to test methods that may be employed in California and nationwide for the surveillance of CM and violence at all ages. The second is to expand and refine EPIC's current CM surveillance system for California based upon these findings. The major project objectives include:

Identifying non-fatal CM among California resident children 0 through 17 for the calendar years 2000 and 2001 using two data sources (i.e., child protective services, hospital discharge)

Linking these data sources

Describing the characteristics of non-fatal CM cases

Evaluating the relative value of the multiple data sources for surveillance

Incorporating the lessons learned into current surveillance efforts

Disseminating information about CM surveillance

For more information on child maltreatment surviellance, contact us at epic@cdph.ca.gov.